Thankful for THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I finally get to write this post! We got the call TODAY!!! 1.5 hours after I knew Gladney was closed for the holidays. I was having my own little pity party and trying to figure out how I was going to fake my way through the Thanksgiving holiday and pretend I was happy, when inside, I was falling apart. But, God IS good, and knew the exact and perfect time for us to learn about our boy! Of course, yesterday, Mike was home because we were all snowed in, but today... he had a meeting at work that he couldn't miss!!! So, Natalie called me at 11:20 (1:20 in Texas)to tell me our referral was ready!! I instantly called Mike and he talked to his boss and his boss told him to forget the meeting and to head straight home!!!! It was almost an hour till we could call Natalie back. But, we opened up the laptop, sat down as a family in front of the fire, and saw the most BEAUTIFUL boy I've ever seen!!!!! he's 4 years old and perfect!!! Gorgeous, sparkling eyes, and a HUGE dimple up high on his cheekbone, and a smile to melt your heart! He's amazing!!!!! He radiates joy! Of course, we instantly accepted his referral and then I was off to the store to print off all the pictures we got! Have I mentioned yet how cute he is?!?!?! Today was already to be a busy day, as we had a turkey prepped and stuffing to be made to take down to church this evening for the Thanksgiving dinner we were serving. But, while Mike stayed home to keep cooking, I ran out to deliver the news to my precious friend who has walked me through my highs.... and more recently my LOWS in this journey-- and I just had to celebrate with her!! (and.... if I had had the time, and if the roads weren't still covered in snow and ice, I would have piled the whole family in the car and driven all over town showing off our boy to all of our friends and family). But, instead, I headed home, picked up the family, and headed to my parents' house to drop off Grace (she wasn't going to come to serve at the church tonight). So, both kids knocked on their door and my parents opened the door to the kids waving their new brother's pictures and squealing in delight!!! And then.... we got to head to church to show off our boy to our incredible church family!! What a day/night this has been!!!! I don't think I've truly processed it yet. I think I just can't believe that the wait is finally over. Man, it took a toll on my body-- both mentally and physically. But, God carried me through and I know it has been such a refining time for me. Hard, but worth every moment!!

I'm not even focusing on the "what nexts". 3-5 months till court? maybe? Right now, I'm just loving my family and loving my boy!!!!!!

Not much to say these days.

This blog has definitely been mostly adoption based. I started the blog right when we got our referral for Grace (June 2007). I kept it up and mainly focused on adoption stuff and family. But honestly, after almost 13 months of waiting for our new little guy, I'm feeling pretty tapped out in the blogging department (as you can probably tell from my several past posts!) So, I'm hoping and praying that this is going to be my LAST post until we get our referral. Because really, even these two cuties are getting fed up with the wait (or maybe they're just fed up with having such an emotionally unstable mom these past months!) Either way, we're BEYOND ready to know who our little guy is!!!!!